Delegate for Eire

The Baron Jerome Saincantin

Becoming a Knight is not easy.

In olden days, one would have to be apprenticed to a Knight and remain a squire for years, learning the skills, acquiring the knowledge, and above all absorbing the essence of Chivalry through the teachings of one’s liege or his example. The path to knighthood was long, arduous, and fraught with dangers. Even those who were not noble-born and squires could only be knighted through feats of tremendous courage and honour - the kind of feats that would claim the lives of most who attempted them.

Nowadays of course things are different. There is no battle training - or experience - required and the long apprenticeship is no longer a condition. It is a quicker process, and an enormously less dangerous one, to become a Knight. At least in name.

But it is not easier.

Oh, modern Knights will not have to test their courage on a battlefield, sword in hand and fear in their guts; they won’t have to train for hours on end in full armour.

But they will have to be brave. They will have to be loyal. They will have to be selfless and courteous. For if the world has changed around them, the virtues that are at the core of their being and the rules that govern their existence as Knights have not. Applied in new ways to a new society, they remain the same: marks of excellence and exemplarity, desperately needed qualities in a deliquescent environment. Safeguards against moral entropy.

A Knight is a Guardian. Guardian of his peers, of his liege or order, of his faith. But also Guardian of his people, of his world. A Knight stands between the order that Mankind needs to thrive and the chaos that Humans create. He regulates, he guides, he controls the flow of Human endeavour; he nurtures the good within us, prunes out the bad and plants the seeds of Chivalry in future Knights. He must be shield and sword, ploughshare and dam, warrior and teacher.

He must be all that, always - and we, who are the new Knights or will become them, we never learned this. We were never squires.

We were taught by our parents and teachers of course. We were selected for Knighthood by our peers in the Confraternity, which tends to show we were taught well enough. But how many of us can honestly say that they are fully prepared for the enormous responsibility of being a true and good Knight?

Some are, I’m sure. There are outstanding individuals who know, instinctively, what is Right. What they cannot tell from their heart they learned as children, or else life taught them the harsh lessons needed to truly understand.

For the rest of us things will be more difficult. Not only will we have to do the hard work needed of a Knight, but we will also have to do the hard work to be Knights. Reflect upon our lives and what we have done with them. Upon our world, and what it is, what it has become. Struggle, always, to do the Right Thing - and to know what it is. On-the-job training, you might say...

A Knighthood is not a fancy title to trot out in gallant or exalted company. It is not a toy, a gadget or a bauble. It is a responsibility that encompasses all aspects of our lives. We are not Knights only when surrounded by other Knights or when doing something for the Confraternity. We are Knights at all times, in our dealings with strangers, family and friends alike. How many of us can honestly say that they are that strong yet?

Becoming a Knight is not easy. It’s a long, continuous process, and a difficult, sometimes painful one. It starts not with the dubbing or the diploma, the approval of your peers or the accolade of the Grandmaster - it starts when you think of yourself as a Knight for the first time. Maybe you have always done so, from childhood; maybe you’ve grown into the role gradually. Or maybe, as I did, you went through life emotionally oblivious of how stern a teacher it could be, until lightning struck close and personal loss, or the pain of those you cherish, made you realise that you could either stick your head back in the sand and wait for the next storm, or stand up at last and face it, do what you could, not because it would necessarily change anything, but because at least you’d be trying.

In the end, the path you take doesn’t matter much. The destination is important, not where you started. As long as you walk on, you’re trying.

If you’re already one of us, as you walk this path I salute you my brother, my sister. If you are not in the Confraternity but have already started this journey, or wish to do so, then I say: welcome. It is a long road, a hard road; and the world needs you to walk it. With us, or not - but walk it. We can use the help.

I know I do.

 

- JEROME SAINCANTIN